1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multimedia server and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for editing images, and an apparatus and method for controlling image display, which provide various service functions, such as printing/scanning, facsimile transmission/reception, database access, or computer conferences, to computers on a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
As various terminals have come to have communication functions with the advances in networking in recent years, interconnectivity becomes very important. For example, for facsimiles, there are facsimile communication protocols defined by CCITT as to a method of accessing a public network. However, protocols for a case in which terminals are formed into a network as a facsimile server have not been standardized.
Although an SQL language of ANSI has been established as a standard for a relational database (RDB), protocols for access to an RDB and a front end interface API (Application Program Interface) are different from vendor to vendor. Although there is an industry standard for each OS for printing, architecture for network printers in a multivendor environment has not yet been standardized.
Regarding OCR, since there has hitherto been no concept of networking, a method of accessing a network OCR is to be determined. There is also no concept of an image processing accelerator on the network. As described above, an effort for standardization has been made as for each individual application field, such as a database for a database, or a network printer for a network printer. However, standardization across the fields has not been made. For example, to perform a series of operations such that an image received by a facsimile server is converted into codes by an OCR server and the codes are stored in a database, since there is no linkage among the respective servers, the client side initiates three client-side programs for facsimiles, OCRs and databases and the operations are performed in sequence. The above operations may possibly be automated if the three programs perform an inter-application communication by using the functions offered from the up-to-date OS. Although the up-to-date OS offers the scheme for the inter-application communication, the way of the inter-application communication is left to a vendor and nothing has been decided.
However, in the conventional server system, for example, to perform a series of operations such that an image received by a facsimile server is converted into codes by an OCR server and the codes are stored in a database, since there is no linkage among the respective servers, the client side initiates three front-end programs, a facsimile front-end, an OCR front-end and a database front-end, and the operations are performed in sequence. However, most of the operation include a number of "cut and paste" and repetition of accesses to a "temporary file", and this entails a great burden.
Also, the method of accessing each different server is different as an inevitable historical consequence of the invention of the server, and access across the service fields is nearly impossible. The present invention is designed to integrate independent servers which are distributed on the network in a virtual manner and to logically construct a huge virtual server so that compatibility among the servers is not required and a number of server functions can be used easily from one application.
Hitherto, it is not possible for a small personal computer to edit a high-resolution image on a large screen because of shortage of memory. For example, a full-color image of an A4 size at 400 dpi (dot/inch) requires a memory of as much as 47 megabytes. Making it possible to handle such a large image by a personal computer is unrealistic in terms of cost and speed, and poses a problem from a point of view of reliability. The CPU power of a personal computer is not so large due to the limitation of a single chip architecture and is slow in speed. In the method of taking in a hard disk into a part of RAM, a despairing delay occurs each time swapping occurs. Also, in the case of the OS of the today's personal computer, if such a large memory is handled, the personal computer often crashes.